The Compassionate Friends

Tucson Chapter

We're sorry for the reason you're here, but we're glad you've found us.

Our Mission

The mission of The Compassionate Friends:

When a child dies, at any age, the family suffers intense pain and may feel hopeless and isolated. The Compassionate Friends provides highly personal comfort, hope, and support to every family experiencing the death of a son or a daughter, a brother or a sister, or a grandchild, and helps others better assist the grieving family.

The Compassionate Friends was founded over 40 years ago when a chaplain at the Warwickshire Hospital in England brought together two sets of grieving parents and realized that the support they gave each other was better than anything he, as a chaplain, could ever say or provide. Meeting around a kitchen table, the Lawleys and the Hendersons were joined by a bereaved mother and the chaplain, Simon Stephens, and The Society of the Compassionate Friends was born. The Compassionate Friends jumped across the ocean and was established in the United States and incorporated in 1978 in Illinois.

Each chapter, along with the supporting National Office, is committed to helping every bereaved parent, sibling, or grandparent who may walk through our doors or contact us.

Today TCF has about 660 chapters serving all 50 states plus Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and Guam offer friendship, understanding, and hope to bereaved parents, siblings, grandparents, and other family members during the natural grieving process after a child has died. Around the world more than 30 countries have a Compassionate Friends presence, encircling the globe with support so desperately needed when the worst has happened.

Fundraiser at Sauce

September 25th, 2017

Location: Sauce on Broadway/Rosemont

Specifics: 15% of sales from 11:00 AM to 9:00 PM are donated to the Compassionate Friends
Guests dining at the restaurant on the benefit day should mention the organization or show a flier to make sure the donation is made to Compassionate Friends.

Change of Location

Starting with the October meeting

Location: Christ Church United Methodist at 655 N. Craycroft

Specifics: In October, the Tucson Chapter of the Compassionate Friends will be changing their meeting location. We have been at Catalina United Methodist Church for several decades but, due to an increase in rent and a generous donation from another church, we will be moving our meetings.

Tucson Chapter Remembrance Candlelighting

Specifics: Send 2-3 pictures of your child for the slide show to compassionate.friends.tucson@gmail.com. Please include your child's name, as you would like it to appear, with the email. Please make sure you receive an email responding that we have received your email and photos. Please invite your family and friends to the event. There will be music, poems, lighting of candles and a slide show with all of our children’s photos. Bring a dessert to share and a photo or memento to display. Note the new location and arrive early as we will start promptly at 7:00PM.

The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting unites family and friends around the globe in lighting candles for one hour to honor the memories of the sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, and grandchildren who left too soon. As candles are lit at 7:00 p.m. local time, hundreds of thousands of persons commemorate and honor the memory of all children gone too soon. Now believed to be the largest mass candle lighting on the globe, the 20th annual Worldwide Candle Lighting, a gift to the bereavement community from The Compassionate Friends, creates a virtual 24-hour wave of light as it moves from time zone to time zone. TCF's WWCL started in the United States in 1997 as a small internet observance, but has since swelled in numbers as word has spread throughout the world of the remembrance. Hundreds of formal candle lighting events are held and thousands of informal candle lightings are conducted in homes as families gather in quiet remembrance of children who have died, but will never be forgotten.
The Compassionate Friends and allied organizations are joined by local bereavement groups, churches, funeral homes, hospitals, hospices, children's gardens, schools, cemeteries, and community centers. Services have ranged in size from just a few people to nearly a thousand.
Every year you are invited to post a message in the Remembrance Book which will be available, during the event, at TCF's national website.